


when we wander

by marcasite



Series: take it easy on my heart [5]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Day Off, F/M, Fluff, inverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 14:33:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17123165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marcasite/pseuds/marcasite
Summary: what does a day off in the middle of a war look like?





	when we wander

**Author's Note:**

  * For [imsfire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/imsfire/gifts).



> 12 Days of Christmas Celebration for the lovely imsfire

Jyn feels the ship stutter as Cassian quietly lands the ship on Panatha. The Outer Rim planet was under Imperial Rule but the inhabitants, the Epicanthix, had maintained a certain degree autonomy. 

“Cassian, are you sure you want to do this?” She leans over his shoulder. Somewhere in the background, the murmur of the ship slows and pulses as he powers down.

“I want to show you this. I have something in mind.”

She rolls her eyes and stares back at him, “You only brought us to an Imperial planet with a race of people with mind shields. What could possibly go wrong?”

He stares back, wounded, “It’s not like I seek out trouble.”

“Right.” She straightens up and reaches down unconsciously to tap her blaster. Grabbing her scarf, she winds it around her head tucking the ends beneath her hair. The silence on the ship is in complete contrast to all the noise from a few moments earlier. “So, what’s the big surprise?”

“Take a look.” He points at the doors and follows her as they open, and she steps out.

“It’s a city,” Jyn continues to look left and right at the crowds. Crowds were a bittersweet blessing, great to hide in but too many people around her made her twitchy. “A busy city.”

She looks around at Cassian as he steps alongside her. “It’s a beautiful city, one that seems to be left to its devices, most of the time. Let’s go and enjoy this while we can.”

She looks at him, eyes darting around the crowds, seeking anything that may be out of place. “Are you expecting something to happen?”

“It’s not going to rain.”

She looks over at him, confusion spreading across her face.” It doesn’t look like it. Does it matter if it rains?”

Cassian tilts his head, and points at her hand. “Aah, I need your hand. It’s just…the crowds…and it’s not that I don’t think you can…trust me.”

Jyn nods slightly and extends her hand towards him as he casually grabs it and pulls her alongside him. Jyn nearly recoils at the unexpected contact but quickly realizes that the roads and sidewalks are so congested that she would have lost Cassian if he didn’t have a firm grip on her. She relaxes incrementally into his touch. 

“Huge festival happens every lunar calendar and I thought you would like to see it.” He pauses, the corners of his mouth turning up. “The biggest light display in the galaxy.” 

Jyn smiles up at him, his calmness and happiness coming through in his quiet voice. “Is the festival here? In the heart of the city? I don’t see how that’s possible.”

“It’s possible. Thousands of people gathered together, despite the heat, to spend the day waiting for the lights.”

“Where would thousands of people fit?” Jyn glances around at the towering buildings surrounding her, built consistently side by side, covering everything in sight.

“Jyn, this city is really something else. It’s been left alone, for the most part, and a lot of the old traditions and culture are still intact. It helps that it’s a humanoid planet but their regard for culture and art are renown.”

She looks around dubiously but can feel nothing but anticipation and eagerness in her surroundings. People are moving quickly around them in either direction, all moving at a hurried pace. It doesn’t trigger any warning bells in her head, the speed at which people were moving so she decided to follow along and trust Cassian.

It had gotten so much easier to do that. 

Jyn smiles as she trails behind him, clutching at his hand. He walks briskly, weaving his way through the crowds. She finds starts to feel nervous as the crowds grow thicker and denser, pushing against her and starts to tug on her hand to gain Cassian’s attention. She finds herself rushing headlong into his back as he makes a sudden stop.

“There, over there,” He turns to her and leans closer, pointing at a large building. “See, over there.”

Jyn looks up, squinting into the sunlight and ahead of her stands a large stadium. Colorful, alarmingly large and surprisingly non-descriptive. It is surprising at how perfectly it fits into the landscape of the congested city and she is suitably impressed. “Are we going in there?”

“Yes,” He turns to her as he speaks, “Everything will hold up. I would bet my life on the person who made them.”

Jyn starts to walk towards the building, she knows he is referring to their scandocs. She is still wary of all these people and the fact that they are going to join this crowd is not helping, but she knows he will have a way out. He always does, “When is this festival you mentioned?”

“Tonight.” Cassian glances around at the swelling crowds. “People start to gather early in the day and they stay all day.”

Jyn tugs at Cassian’s hand, “What are we waiting for?”

 

_

 

They pay their entry fee and as night falls, Jyn and Cassian join the crowds and wander aimlessly throughout the stadium. Cassian insists that they not miss a single thing. For Jyn, it is one of the happiest days she’s experienced in a long time and she is grateful for this day.

“Almost time.” Cassian comes to a stop and looks up at the sky. “We’ll watch from here.”

Jyn looks around and realizes he had chosen a spot with their backs to the wall, both of them tucked out of direct view of most onlookers. She glances to her left and notice a set of stairs that can be used to climb down the side of the building if needed in a pinch. It’s perfect. She watches as Cassian takes the green mat that they had been given upon their entrance, and places it on the ground and gestures to Jyn to do the same. She sits quietly next to him, absorbing the chaos around them.

For the next hour, they watch the pyrotechnic display uninterrupted. Cassian leans over and whispers, “Did you know that the Epicanthix believe that these light shows for the festival mean good luck. It’s why they do it every year.”

She laughs to herself and simply enjoys the moment. Days like today were impossible to image only months ago and this is why she trusts him above anyone else, why she stays with him. He tries to find hope in the small moments of every day, believes so much in what he is fighting for and as she looks around she believes anything is possible. She has never seen anything this amazing and wants to carve every detail into her mind, commit it all to memory. She will never get tired of these small moments.

Leaning over, she places her hand on his arm and pulls herself closer to his warmth. “Thank you for today. I loved every moment of it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes.” She nods emphatically. “Every moment.”

 

.end

**Author's Note:**

> Taken some liberties: [Epicanthix](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Epicanthix) is an outer rim planet (which I modeled after China in this story)
> 
> The festival is Chinese NY Year or the [Lantern Festival ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantern_Festival)
> 
> Please come visit me on [tumblr](https://leaiorganas.tumblr.com/) or [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/leaiorganas) anytime: **leaiorganas**


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